All the latest Giants news from MLB.com beat writer Chris Haft.

Final facts from 2011

September 29

SAN FRANCISCO — You knew that Madison Bumgarner has outstanding control of his pitches. You might not have known that his excellence this year reached historic proportions.

Bumgarner began the season at age 21. According to researcher Roger Schlueter of Major League Baseball Productions, Bumgarner’s 4.15 strikeout-to-walk ratio (191 Ks, 46 walks) was the second best since 1893 for any pitcher that young. The only pitcher in his age-21 season to eclipse Bumgarner in this category was Kansas City’s Bret Saberhagen, who had a 4.16 ratio (158 Ks, 38 walks) in 1985. Bumgarner moved onto this list ahead of Don Sutton, who recorded a 4.02 ratio (209 Ks, 52 walks) as a Dodgers rookie in 1966. Bumgarner turned 22 on Aug. 1.

Of course, no discussion of strikeout-to-walk ratio is complete without mentioning Sergio Romo. The Giants right-hander posted a ridiculous ratio of 14 (70 Ks, five walks) in 48 innings. His figure led all Major Leaguers who pitched at least 35 innings.

Despite Bumgarner’s and Romo’s best efforts, Giants pitchers walked 559 batters, third-highest in the National League. Tim Lincecum issued a career-high 86 walks — a figure he vowed to trim. Aside from Romo, the relief corps of Santiago Casilla, Javier Lopez, Guillermo Mota, Ramon Ramirez, Dan Runzler and Brian Wilson walked 154 in 336 innings. Despite this, San Francisco’s bullpen ranked second in the league with a 3.04 ERA.

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More stats and history: The Giants’ abysmal total of 570 runs was their lowest in a non-strike-shortened season since they accumulated 556 in 1985.

You’ll remember that the ’85 club remains the only outfit in Giants history to lose 100 games.

Mark DeRosa, who possesses the gift of gab in abundance, will provide commentary during the postseason for MLB Network.

“That’s something I’ve had my eye on for a little bit,” DeRosa said. “They offered me a chance to come up there and help them out. Just to see if I enjoy it.I love being around the game. I love talking baseball. I’m not a guy who goes home in the offseason and forgets about it. I religiously watch every playoff game and World Series. I’ve got a lot of friends who have been playing in the league a long time with a lot of different teams. I’ve gotten to know a lot of guys around the league. I feel like I have a feel for what makes them tick.”

Here’s a not-going-out-on-a-limb-at-all prediction: DeRosa will do a heck of a job and set up a promising future for himself in radio or TV … once he finishes playing.

9 Comments

Chris . . . De Rosa’s an interesting case. He was a really consistent hitter down the stretch, and had a lot of important RBIs. But can the Giants really consider keeping a hitter who can’t hit for power? I mean, is that wrist ever going to get stronger?I remember when he was thought of as the prime catch of free agents two years ago, much more than Aubrey Huff . . . it would be interesting if that still turned out to be true!Crazy night last night . . . wish I had a team to root for in the playoffs, even a little bit. Go . . . ummm . . . Diamondbacks?

Coaching! We need De Rosa on the Giants’ coaching staff someday! This guy knows his baseball, lives and breathes baseball and has so much support and happiness for his teammates, I can’t imagine what an amazing job he could do with our players’ interests at heart.

I don’t want to pick on one individual; team offense is the resonsibility of the whole team. BUT … I think the Giants have to seriously consider getting a new hitting coach. The offensive states this year were truly offensive.

Muelens has been rehired? I don’t get it. I don’t necessarily agree that it’s always the manager’s fault it the team doesn’t win, but usually it will result in the manager being replaced. Why, after the miserable hitting performance all year from nearly the entire staff, wouldn’t the hitting coach be replaced? Is the whole team not listening? Who’s talking about a team hitting approach for a given pitcher? When they get into the sixth or seventh inning, who’s reminding the hitters to take a strike to wear down a good starter and get him out of the game? As a team, the Giants don’t show situational awareness at the plate. If that’s not the hitting coach, who is it?

There was no one reason for the Giants not making it to the playoffs except them scoring just 570 runs, about 3.2 per game. Giants have always been a team that swung at a lot of bad ptiches and the word gets around the league pretty quickly that they will. I’ve never been a second guesser, but the Giants need to run and bunt and get players that can do that. Torres can do both, but he spent so much time on the DL this past year…Me thinx Bochy stayed with Huff too long, hoping he would work out his problems. Pill is real, as are Belt and soon Crawford. He is at least hitting more than his weight. No ‘big’ hitter in the 3-4-5 spots are going to do any good unless there are runners on ahead of him. The Giants are hamstrung with two big contracts they have to pay off: Rowand and Zito. Fortunately they only gave Tejada a one year contract so they are done with him. Rowand will probably catch on somewhere as a 4th outfielder. Play the youngsters!

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